Police seize Rp 29 billion in bogus rupiah in three years

Police seize Rp 29 billion in bogus rupiah in three years

JAKARTA (JP): Police revealed on Thursday that from January
1997 through February of this year, they have seized counterfeit
rupiah that amounted to Rp 29 billion (US$3.7 million) and called
on the public not to hesitate to report to the police when they
received fake bills.

National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Dadang Garnida told
reporters that police findings showed an increase of counterfeit
rupiah being circulated over the past three years in Java and
Greater Jakarta areas.

Officer Dadang said the circulation of counterfeit bills
reached "0.0076 percent of the total cash in circulation, which
ranged from Rp 55 trillion to Rp 58 trillion," but he did not
explain his calculations.

He said that although the amount of fake rupiah was still
below the alarming level of 0.1 percent of total money in
circulation and did not affect the country's economy, the
frequent discovery of counterfeit bills had raised public
concern.

"Although the economy has not been affected, circulation of
fake money has created restlessness among the general public," he
said, stressing the need for involvement of the police and
central bank officials to cope with the problem.

The total revealed by the National Police was Rp 5 billion
more than that of Bank Indonesia's, that stood at Rp 23.8
billion.

Bank Indonesia's director for cash circulation, H.Y. Susmanto,
who accompanied Dadang in the meeting, said that the numbers were
different because the central bank had not included the Rp 5
billion fake bills found during police raids in Bogor and Ciawi,
West Java, that were still uncut from the sheets.

Noting the increased circulation of the fake rupiah, Susmanto
said that Bank Indonesia traced Rp 4.4 billion in 1997, Rp 6.1
billion in 1998 and Rp. 6.7 billion last year. The first two
months of this year alone, the amount of counterfeit rupiah in
circulation reached Rp 6.5 billion.

Chief of the special police unit for counterfeiting offenses
Col. Edyana, explained that 398 out of the 411 cases of
counterfeit money in 1998 were already solved. While in 1999,
only 10 were left unsolved out of 330 cases.

Edyana said that until last February, police had completed
investigation into 60 of a total of 64 cases of counterfeit Rp
50,000 bills. "On March 7, police raided a house in Bogor and
seized counterfeit bills worth Rp 1.875 billion. The man who
rented the house, identified as Alfian, got away during the
raid."

He said police suspected that those dealing in the counterfeit
money business would be a syndicate closely related with illegal
financial sponsors, owners of a printing machine with access to
certain quality paper and distributors.

Edyana warned that people who had received counterfeit rupiah
should report to the police and should by no means use it for
their spending, as such an action was considered helping
distribute or circulate the counterfeit money.

"Those involved in distribution of fake money violate Article
No. 249 of the criminal code and are subject to four and a half
months imprisonment", he explained.

"People who receive fake money prefer to spend it again,
because BI will not replace them with real ones," he said,
pointing out that such an undertaking also violates the law.

"We will trace the distribution chain of the money," he said,
explaining that should the chain be broken, they would further
develop the investigation through other avenues.

Dadang identified ways in which fake moneys are used in
inter-syndicate transactions involving a large amount of cash
or purchasing goods in bulk.

"In such transactions, usually the ratio of counterfeit to
real money is three to one," he added.

Susmanto dismissed speculations about the possibility of using
paper of old Brazilian money by removing the ink printed on the
cruzeiro bill and have it reprinted with the Indonesian currency.

Dadang said that most counterfeit money was denomination Rp
50,000, while in the past, even Rp 100 and Rp 500 bills were
faked by those who planned to disrupt the country's economy.
Dadang, however, did not elaborate. (06)